The architecture of the model in Figure 2:
The architecture of the model of core consciousness during purgation has a quickly operating (milleseconds to seconds) parallel processing cognitive mechanism in the upper sector that interacts with a relatively slow system (seconds to hours) in the lower sector. The former originates in the thalamocortical system and is nonconscious; the latter originates in the limbic-brain stem and neurocirculatory system and is mostly conscious. Jackendoff (1987) calls the former the computational mind and the latter the phenomenological mind. Communication between these two sectors of the model is provided by the seven transducers or transition variables, six of which are associated with prayer and attention and one of which is a kind of energy within the mind (PsychicEnergyFactor). These transducers are conscious.
All of the conscious variables in the lower sector of the model are named in the 'natural attitude.' For example, KnotsInHeart has no reality as such. There are no knots in the heart, but there may be cramped or paralyzed muscles. Thus, naming the variables in the natural attitude means the name it feels like to the experiencer as he recalls his core consciousness during the 10 hour experience of purgation. It is not the name of what is actually going on in the experiencer's body.
Thus, the model's representation for my core consciousness (Damasio 1999) is shown in the lower sector. The intentionality of consciousness during purgation is about a somatosensory mental image. This mental image is about the heart opening against a resistance in the form of knots in the heart. This mental image does not exist. Transcendental phenomenology labels such intentionality, 'intentional inexistence.' The mental image does not exist, because it is not a material object. Further, hearts are not opened and they don't have knots. However, eventually, in the second phase of the TFP analysis, the SD-based TFP analysis finds that what exists are antagonistic heart muscles. Even though the mental image does not exist, it can be modeled and simulated because there is a one to one relationship between the movement of the heart muscles and the dynamics of the mental image. The mind uses the imagination to convert the movement of the heart muscles to the dynamics of the mental image. That is why it is called a somatosensory mental image. There is a saying that a picture is worth 1000 words. For a person experiencing the incredibly stressful and fearful dark night of the soul or purgation, a mental image is worth 1000 neurophysiological facts. Hence, in a crisis the mind uses a somatosensory mental image. An image makes it easier and quicker for the mind to comprehend and to act or respond to the essentials of what is sensed within. Variables of the model associated directly with the somatosensory mental image include HeartOpenness, KnotsInHeart, FearDeathDueToKnot, and the set of feedback loops associated with them. ForgivenessResponse, PsychicStress, and OpeningPressure are also associated with this mental image. A simulation of these conscious variables allows us to get a good description - in the natural attitude - of core consciousness and how it is driven, moment by moment, during the stressful and fearful experience of purgation.
The 11 variables representing the nonconscious cognitive mechanism are located in the upper part of the model, above a semicircle that goes just above KnotOriginInsight, AttentionalFocus, and PsychicEnergyFactor. I invented this cognitive mechanism sector and use it, because it works well with the lower part of the model. Eventually, this sector will be replaced by a model developed by scientists in the field of cognitive science. At present we must use my invented model. It incorporates the concept of redundancy from engineering; Miller's (1956) concepts from information theory concerning channel capacity and recoding; Miller's 'magical number seven' used in cognitive science; and the retrieval accuracy of short term memory concept developed by Schouten and Bekker (1967), Wickelgren (1979), and Luce (1986). The concept of redundancy comes into play during mystical union when the primary information processor shuts down and the background information processor takes over in its place. How the model of consciousness operates when time stops during mystical union will be discussed more fully later.
Preliminary definitions of each of these variables are given by the 38 variable (11 in the upper sector, 27 in the lower sector) mathematical model. The constants in the equations and the table functions have been tuned to give an accurate simulation of the 10-hour Dark Night or purgative stage right up to the moment just preceding mystical union. (See the 10-step Transcendental Feedback Phenomenological (TFP) procedure in Chapter 7 in Section 7.4.) Of the 38 variables, 23 are aspects of consciousness. All 23 are located in the lower sector. The simulations of these 23 aspects of consciousness are all simultaneous. For example, simultaneously, the experiencer is conscious of the dynamics or change of the following aspects of consciousness during purgation: the rise in the opening pressure on his heart, an opening heart, the presence of a knot in his heart and the removal of a knot, the rise and fall of the intensity of fear of death and psychic stress, the rising intensity of his prayer, the rise and fall of the degree of attentional focus of his mind, etc.
Dynamics of purgation or dark night of the soul:
In my normal life HeartOpenness was stable at 5% of maximum possible openness and there were a stable set of twelve KnotsInHeart. This is shown at Time=0 in the simulation at Figure 1 at section 3, below. (Keep in mind that these numbers are only my best estimates: the initial value of HeartOpenness could have been anywhere from 2% to 10% or 15%; the initial value of KnotsInHeart could have been anywhere between 8 and 15 knots.) However, just after the beginning of the Dark Night or purgation (Time>0), the phenomenological mind undergoes a change in such a way that OpeningPressure jumps from its NormalOpening Pressure of 5% all the way up to 80%. This is reflected by the fact that I have programmed AdditionalOpeningPressure to go from 0 to 75% at Time = 0. To understand the initial dynamics of the model at this point, keep in mind that the flow diagram for the 10-hour experience of purgation shown in Figure 2 has, at present, only two sectors. Eventually, the flow diagram or noema of core consciousness for the entire religious crisis may have 3 or more sectors. Therefore, the step input from AdditionalOpeningPressure is assumed to come from or originate in either a shift in loop dominance (Forrester 1985) or a bifurcation (Strogatz 1994) associated with a projected, but not yet modeled, adjacent sector. This step input causes limbic-brain stem variables in Figure 2, such as HeartOpenness, PsychicStress, FearDeathDueToKnot, KnotsInHeart and the like, to change or become dynamic, all coordinated by way of the feedback loops in the structure.
KnotsInHeart, HeartOpenness, and the three memories in the cognitive mechanism are called state variables by mathematicians. In system dynamics terminology they are called stocks or levels or accumulations. Each stock or state variable has the characteristic of accumulation, analogous to a bathtub accumulating water. Using this bathtub analogy, 'How open is the heart at this moment?' is analogous to 'How full of water is the bathtub now?' ForgivenessResponse, HeartUnfoldmentRate, PrimaryInformationProcessingRate, BackgroundInformationProcessingRate, and InnerSensingRate are examples of rates. They act like either the bathtub's inlet faucets or outlet drains. Whether the faucet is an inlet faucet or outlet drain is indicated by the large arrowhead. (Eliminate the darkened arrowhead and use the open arrowhead to indicate the direction of flow of the thing or entity that is passing through the 'faucet'.) The much smaller arrowheads indicate the direction of causation. For example, the arrows coming from PrayerTrueness and PrayerIntensity and pointing at PrayerQuality indicate that the first two variables determine the value of PrayerQuality at any time. Specifically, the mathematical model gives the following definition of PrayerQuality:
PrayerQuality = 0.5*(PrayerTrueness + PrayerIntensity) ............equation 1
When PrayerQuality reaches 100%, which is the 'forgiveness threshold', the ForgivenessResponse is triggered and one KnotInHeart is removed in a ratchet-like fashion. (The knot is removed, rather than added, because the open arrowhead points away from the KnotsInHeart stock.) Action then shifts to a negative feedback loop associated with HeartOpenness and PsychicStress: The removal of this one knot begins to unseal the restricted and rigid or tight heart, causing PsychicStress to decrease rapidly, which then causes the HeartUnfoldmentRate 'faucet' to open. This causes HeartOpenness to fill or open further, causing PsychicStress to rise again as the heart begins to encounter the next knot. As a result FearDeathDueToKnot, and then PrayerIntensity, and WillfulAttention, begin to rise again. The rise in fear and attention leads to a shift in loop dominance: Action shifts to the cognitive mechanism, which is essentially a negative feedback loop concerned with solving the problem of the origin of the knot (Ellis 1995). The fear and attention driven PrimaryInformationProcessingRate in the cognitive mechanism speeds up, leading to an increase in KnotOriginInsight. This increasing insight is concerned with the solution to the following problem: What is the particular sin, guilt, or hatred that is at the origin of this next knot? The gradual solution to this problem and my gradual acceptance of this solution leads to greater PrayerTrueness and then greater PrayerQuality until the latter reaches the 'forgiveness threshold,' triggering the ForgivenessResponse again. Then, the next knot cycle begins.
Arlen Wolpert
http://theworld.com/~awolpert/gtr527.html
Draft of March 19,2005
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